Let’s start with what has been Topic No. 1 on the Hotline for the past six or eight weeks …

Action: Pac-10 commish Larry Scott tells CBSSports.com that he’s pursuing the possibility of a football championship game without expansion.Reaction I: I’ve been wondering about this option ever since reading that the NCAA’s 12-team requirement to stage a football title game is arbitrary. It was written into the I-AA rulebook many years ago, then adopted to I-A for the SEC. But it sure doesn’t seem like it would be difficult to change, especially if it 1) satisfied the majority of FBS schools and 2) prevented the breakup of the current conference structure.

Reaction II: A football championship game without expansion would be the best-case revenue scenario for Scott: It would generate an additional $750k – 1 million for each school (based on my sense for the value of a football title game), and the league wouldn’t have to cut the pie 12 ways. And …Reaction III: The league could split into two five-team divisions along the Zipper Plan (dividing the natural rivals) while maintaining the round-robin schedule. The Northwest schools would keep their contact with the Los Angeles market and teams and everyone would be happy.

Action: Florida Coach Urban Meyer dressed down an Orlando Sentinel reporter for … quoting a player accurately.Reaction I: The problem was, that player criticized Tim Tebow.Reaction II: Did the reporter (Jeremy Fowler) do anything wrong? Nope. Is Meyer protecting his player and his program? Yep. Is he waaaaaaay out of line? Double-yep.Reaction III: What struck me most is Meyer’s comment that if he were the players’ father, he and Fowler “would be going at it right now.” And what kind of example would that set, Urb, other than teaching your “son” and 100-something players that the way to respond to problems is by fighting like 12-year-olds on the playground?

Action: Oregon basketball search plows ahead (in relative secrecy).Reaction I: With Mike Bellotti out as athletic director, Pat Kilkenny is back at the helm (at least for this search). He has reporetedly talked to four candidates about the job. The names that keep popping up (with or without validity) are Mark Few, Mark Turgeon, Jamie Dixon, even Billy Donovan.Reaction II: I keep wondering about Tubby, especially now that the Auburn job has been filled (by UTEP’s Toby Barbee) and that Paul Hewitt isn’t leaving Georgia Tech (for St. John’s).

Action: UCLA Coach Ben Howland is rumored — at least for one day — to be a candidate for the DePaul job.Reaction: Howland isn’t leaving UCLA for any other college job (unless he’s eventually forced out, which is hard to envision). Could I see him jumping to the NBA at some point? Perhaps. But that’s it — that’s the only reason he’d leave Westwood on his own.

Action: USC football recruit Seantrel Henderson (finally) signs his LOI.Reaction I: Given that Henderson and his father were determined to wait for the outcome of USC’s compliance hearing/penalty phase … does this mean the Trojans have reason to believe they’re off the probation hook?Reaction II: It’s hard to imagine that USC would have access to the NCAA super-secret info even though they’re the subject of the compliance ruling. But it’s not hard to imagine the NCAA coming down lightly on the football program. And by that I mean: Minimal scholarship reductions/recruiting limitations and (the biggie) no postseason ban.

Action: Arizona hires Greg Byrne, formerly of Mississippi State, as its athletic director.Reaction I: He’ll be better than his predecessor.Reaction II: He’s an ASU grad, which can only mean this deal was made possible by your friendly neighborhood executive search firm.Reaction III: By all accounts, Byrne is sharp and shrewd and, as the son of former Oregon AD Bill Byrne, he knows the Pac-10 landscape. But the fact that he signed off on MSU’s pursuit/acceptance/support of Renardo Sidney — I feel dirty just typing that name — isn’t exactly a feather in Byrne’s cap. In fact, it’s a stain on his resume.Reaction IV: And I cannot help wondering about the alma mater issue — and whether being a Sun Devil will prove problematic with Wildcat fans and boosters if Byrne hits a rough patch in Tucson.

Jon Wilner

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Thank goodness Larry Scott finally figured out the obvious solution: don’t change the membership of the Pac-10, change the rule requiring 12 teams for a title game. This would work even better for the Big 10, who don’t have the round-robin schedule. I bet the ACC commissioners are thinking “crap, why didn’t we think of doing that instead of expanding to 12 teams?!”

In the Pac 10, I’d like to see the Zipper Plan put into place and have the title game staged at the home of the highest seeded division winner- this eliminates the concern over the game being played at a half-empty NFL stadium in San Diego, Oakland or Seattle.

Someone explain to me the point of having divisions if everyone plays everyone?

aim

Among other reasons why the “2 divisions” idea is dumb, you could easily have years where the winner of a division has the 3rd, 4th, or even 5th best record in the league. How lame would a championship game be – showcasing the team with the best record vs. team with the 4th/5th best record?

Jim

@Nuss: As the rule is written, a conference is required to have a two-division format in order to stage a championship game. So unless or until that rule someday gets rewritten too, the choice is either two divisions or no championship game.

Papa John

I have to agree with some of the other posters: a championship game for a conference that already plays a round-robin schedule is dumb.

Which means it will probably happen.

dean wermer

I vote for “dumb” as well (nice papa john point about that meaning it will happen)

milo

It seems if the P10 goes to two divisions, the round robin conference schedule ends. Cal and Stanfurd would probably lose a game with WSU, ASU, OSU and UA each year, and pick up an OOC game. The championship game would be +1. I like the round robin but I think Scott is going to axe it.

Robber Baron 83

I, too, think that a CCG guaranteed to create a rematch is a dumb idea. Actually, I can think of a few other adjectives too, but they are not appropriate for polite company. A CCG is meant to solve a problem that a 10-team league (that plays a round robin) simply does not have. Just who to they think will tune in to watch this abomination? Do they really think that we fans are that dumb?

stanfordfan

Win one for the Zipper…

NYOD

Clean your keyboard off every once in a while — or wash your hands.

Whatever crime & time there is, will have been served by the time Sidney plays. Then all he’ll have left to overcome is the shameless dirt from your hands, not his.

A championship game when we have the round robin is stupid. But don’t worry, they get rid of the round robin to justify it and you get to schedule another patsy – unless your OSU.

One question, if you run the gauntlet of a round robin, squeaking past U$C for what should be the league title, but still have to play U$C again, probably in LA (probably in the Colliseum as even Scott can’t see Rose Bowl overkill as acceptable), how is that going to taste?

Obama – you got health care done, now get us a playoff so our system can find more entertaining ways to get our dollar then copying the current paradigms.

Last, did anyone else think both UW and Xavier were playing 6 on 5 last night (not quite 7 on 5, but one zebra is enough).

JakesTakeOnSports.com — The two-division setup would solve two issues. It would provide the extra revenue that comes with a conference championship game. More important, it would also give Pac-10 teams one or two more nonconference games, because teams presumably would play seven or eight conference games. Pac-10 coaches have complained for some time that other conferences have an easier time becoming bowl eligible because they play fewer conference games and can therefore schedule more winnable nonconference games to reach the six-win minimum. With an extra nonconference game or two to work with, more Pac-10 teams should become bowl-eligible.

Ranger John

Yeah Jake, thats what we need more patsies on the schedules. Don’t forget the SJS no league schedule: Alabama, Wisconsin, Utah (for money) I am not getting excited about So Utah though.

Karen Imatani

Jon,

What is your reaction to Steve Lavin being hired as the men’s basketball head coach at St. John’s?